This version of Artemis appeals to us far more than the line-up on their nevertheless groundbreaking 2020 self-titled debut - the slightly rejigged personnel and no vocals this time around suits the essence of what they are about better. Just as poised and virtuosic at heart, the sextet are still shaped around the skill of Renee Rosnes' musical vision - some crucial things do not change mercifully - and whose pianism on 'Balance of Time' is a special moment for instance as it is when Rosnes switches to Rhodes on 'Timber.'
The arrangements are very much 21st century textbook small group jazz when the tradition is respected but also looks to transition. You do gain a ''Hankerin''' certainly for the drive of hard bop here if not at all exact facsimile period detail. Here that style, which is to build a driving spirit when a trumpet and saxophones in the ensemble can mesh with a piano trio of a rhythm section as one, is one jumping off point. The band bassist Noriko Ueda's tune 'Lights Away From Home' is warm and true and the album is good at shifting mood. Artemis are trumpeter Ingrid Jensen, appealingly Wheelerian on the multi-faceted 'Timber,' tenorist Nicole Glover, altoist Alexa Tarantino, pianist Renee Rosnes, bassist Ueda and drummer Allison Miller. Terri Lyne Carrington fans will certainly like Miller's approach - also hear the drummer with Jo Lawry on 2023 release, Acrobats.
Lyle Mays' 'Slink' from the 1986 Lyle Mays (Geffen) album and the late Wayne Shorter's piece 'Penelope' from 1980's Etcetera that had Wayne, a Jazz Messenger himself, with Herbie Hancock, Forest Flower history maker Cecil McBee and Joe Chambers recorded 15 years earlier, knit in well among the originals even when idiomatically they are a good distance apart. In a year when the world has sadly lost Wayne, listening to 'Penelope' right at the end is a much needed pitstop for vital reflection and where Jensen is most inspired. Artemis move the ballad along so sensitively and Miller's brushwork here is like what goes into a picture at an exhibition that you'd queue more than contentedly to gain admission to.
Artemis, l-r Alexa Tarantino, Nicole Glover, Renee Rosnes, Ingrid Jensen (front), Noriko Ueda, Allison Miller, photo: a detail from the In Real Time cover, play the Barbican, London on 11 July
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